Saturday 3/29
After a night of packing and getting the house ready to leave, I finally went to bed around 10 and the alarm went off at 3 AM. Finished last minute packing and headed to the airport. TSA only had 1 line open and the line stretched way outside the normal line area. I have a CLEAR pass but their lane was not open yet so I had to get in line with the unwashed masses . Luckily the new shift of TSA agents came on duty and they got a couple of more lines open. I got through security and to my gate with about 10 minutes to spare for my 5:30 flight.
Flight was on time and pretty smooth. We flew over the Grand Canyon but I was bummed that it was still not quite light yet and cloudy so you couldn’t see anything. Last time I flew to LA via Las Vegas and the views of the canyon were stunning from 37000 feet!
We got into LAX a little bit early and since I was in the second row, I got right off the plane. When I got off, I saw the most beautiful sight every….a Starbucks with no line immediately in front of me. I jumped in line and grabbed my trenta iced green tea with no water and no sweetner and my day got a whole lot better the shot life giving elixir.
Headed to baggage claim and had to wait about 15 minutes for my bag to arrive. It came off pretty quick and I headed outside to find the rental car pickup. Outside was still pretty cool and I’m glad I had my hoodie on especially when it took 15 minutes for the Alamo bus to finally show up. I swear we saw other companies’ busses 2-3 times before Alamo finally showed. While we were waiting, I took pictures of the restaurant that is the focal point of LAX. I hope I get a chance to go up inside the structure someday…it looks really cool.
The bus finally showed up and I chatted with a lady who was there with her family. Turns out they love Disney and Disney cruises too so we had a lot to talk about on the way to the Alamo office. Once I got there, I quickly found a kiosk and completed my rental. I headed to the garage to find the compacts and hoped to find something cool. I saw a lot of white Chevy Cruzes and nondescript Nissan Versa but then I saw the heavans open up and a light shine down upon my choice….a black Fiat 500! It was mine. OMG, that car is tiny! My big suitcase barely fit in the truck and my carryon took up the backseat but I left the car rental place in style! LOL
It took a few minutes for Google Maps to figure out the route to the hotel and I got lost a little bit but I finally found the 405 and headed towards Anaheim. I saw the signs for Long Beach and mentally waved at Alison and Fran. Once I got off the highway, I hit something wrong on the transmission and I had to manually shift up and down at the traffic lights. It wasn’t until I drove the car later, I figured out that I had engaged the manual/automatic transmission thing by moving the lever over. It was very perplexing until I finally figured out what I had done!
I found the hotel easily and pulled up about 8:45 or so. I checked in to the Anabella Hotel fully expecting no room until the afternoon but they waived the early check in fee and assigned me a room that was ready. I was able to dump all my stuff in the room. The room wasn’t bad. No carpet..everything is either laminate wood or tile in the bathroom. There is a small fridge. I only have 2 complaints about the hotel and that is the walls are paper thin and you can hear EVERYTHING! The other is they charge $15/day for parking and so far, the parking lot is completely full. I had to resort to parking in the employee lot to find a place. I said something to the concierge and he offered to move his personal car and let me have his space. I do hope after the weekend is over that the parking lot empties out a bit.
After dumping my stuff in the room, I headed out to DTD. The walk is fairly easy. I forgot about the shortcut through the GCH so I ended up walking a lot farther than I needed to. DTD was super busy. I stopped in at the WOD store because I realized I forgot to bring a park bag. I had gotten a couple of super cute wallets but I needed a way to carry my phone and camera too. I found a small string backpack that fit the bill. I was able to show my DVC card and save 10%. That taken care of I continued on towards the front gates. The crowds lined up at bag check were huge! There was a cheerleading competition at the Convention Center and the cheerleaders were out in full force. Fortunately, they were mostly well behaved.
After finally getting through bag check, I got in line at the ticket kiosks and after another long wait, I was able to trade in my Orbitz voucher for a 5 day park hopper. I can’t remember if I posted my deal but Ebates was offering 20% any “activities” purchase for a bit through Orbitz and tickets qualified as an “activity.” I bought the pass for $285 but I will get a check from Ebates back in May for $56! Pretty good savings I thought. I was able to exchange the voucher with no issues. (Note, Orbitz makes you put a date range for your visit..I had my dates starting on Sunday, but that was no issue. Disney just issued me a ticket with no dates on it at all!)
On my way into the park, I ran into the DL Band playing so I stopped and watched a listened for a while.
Once I had my ticket, I decided to go ahead and go into DL and find some breakfast because I had only had 1/3 poptart and a small cereal bar on the plane. After tearing up walking onto Main Street, I check with the Carnation Café to see if it was possible to be seated. They put me on the list and it was about 30 minutes to get called. By this time it was getting close to 10:30 and they closed walk ups for breakfast and wouldn’t take names for lunch until about 11:15.
I was finally seated and I ordered the Apple Granola pancakes with bacon. OMG, these were delicious! Fresh apple topping (not the canned apple pie filling!) and REAL BACON! Not crappy WDW bacon. DL is already up on its Florida sibling in this area. I was able to use my DVC discount on breakfast for another 10% off.
Continues in the next post.
(I can't seem to get the menu picture rotated...it looks correct in PB but isn't rotating over here)
Sheldon!
